When Crispy Baked Tofu Nuggets are life!  Seriously, these tasty little nuggets of joy will totally put a huge smile on your face with the first bite! Pair this deliciousness with our Mustard Maple Dipping Sauce or your favorite barbecue sauce and you have a match made in heaven! There’s a new nugget in town and these tasty lil golden nuggets are oil free, healthier, and better than any drive through meal in a box. Grab a plate and let’s dig in – YUM!

Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.

Hi there, Ameera here!

Dance with me!  That’s exactly what mom and I did after enjoing these delicious golden nuggets of joy! So crispy, so tasty, so perfectly dippable, we ate these puppies up like nobody’s business.

Let’s be honest!

If you have been reading our blog for any amount of time, you will note that there aren’t too many tofu recipes!  That’s because Mom and I were not huge tofu fans. Don’t get me wrong, we like tofu, but before anything makes it to our blog, the recipe really needs to shine!

We test drove a few tofu recipes around the blog, but none of them made it home, that is until we found our new friend…

This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.

Super Firm Prepressed Tofu

Yes, our new-found friend is Super Firm Prepressed Tofu.  Errrr-mah-gerrrd!  I love prepressed tofu. In my humble opinion, it made the world of difference in texture. I totally fell in love with how easy it is to cut and work with. No crumbling and falling apart, it held its shape so nicely.

Plus, if texture is a thing for you (like it is me), this prepressed tofu is a total game changer.

Marinade

Let’s face it tofu is a blank slate. It literally has no flavor that is why a great marinade is so important. The longer you marinade the tofu, the more flavor it soaks up. We marinated the tofu for 2 hours total. If you marinade it less, it will still be tasty, but keep in mind it will have less flavor.

Crispy Crunch Coating

The crispy crunch coating makes these tasty nuggets shine.  Trust us, you’ll want to take the time to ensure the tofu is lightly covered in tahini, then generously coated on all sides with the crunch coating.

I absolutely love this flavorful crunchy coating, it makes all the difference in the world.  They come out of the oven so crispy and delicious.  Don’t forget to pair this with our Mustard Maple Dipping Sauce, the combo are total game changers!

Thin Tahini

For this recipe, you’ll want to use a tahini that only has sesame seeds as the ingredient and you want a thin (runny) tahini. It ensures a light even coating of tahini on each nugget without using too much tahini over all.

What do I mean by thin/runny tahini? Like any nut or seed butter you buy at the store, you’ll notice that the nut/seed butter separates and there will be a layer of oil on top. (This happens even when the only ingredient is the nut or seed.) You’ll want to stir all the oil back into the tahini. Make sure to scrape all the way to the bottom of the jar and get all that good stuff. Once it is all mixed together, you’ll have what I call a thin/runny tahini.

A tip is to store your nut/seed butters upside-down to help with stirring and making sure the bottom gets stirred in evenly as well.

I’ll let Mom tell you more.

Hi! Robin here!

Monkey has been trying to get me on the tofu train for a while, but I always got off the train before reaching our destination until she introduced me to this amazing recipe! I totally devoured these little nuggets of joy!  That’s what I call them “Nuggets of Joy!”

We would love for you to try this recipe! If you give this tasty dish a try, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us!  We would love to hear from you.

Products Used:

• Baking sheet

Crispy Baked Tofu Nuggets

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• Author: Ameera and Robin
• Prep Time: 15 Minutes
• Cook Time: 22-24 Minutes
• Total Time: 37-39 Minutes (+ 1 Hour Marinade)
• Yield: 24-28 Nuggets 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

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Description

When Crispy Baked Tofu Nuggets are life!  Seriously, these tasty little nuggets of joy will totally put a huge smile on your face with the first bite! Pair this deliciousness with our Mustard Maple Dipping Sauce or your favorite barbecue sauce and you have a match made in heaven! There’s a new nugget in town and these tasty lil golden nuggets are oil free, healthier, and better than any drive through meal in a box. Grab a plate and let’s dig in – YUM!

Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.

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Ingredients

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Tofu Marinade Ingredients:

• 16 oz. package Organic Super Firm Prepressed Tofu *
• 1/3 cup vegetable broth *
• 1 Tablespoon low sodium tamari *
• ¼ teaspoon liquid smoke
• Pinch ground mustard powder
• Pinch black pepper

Crunch Coating Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons cornmeal
• ¼ cup panko crumbs *
• 2 teaspoons brown rice flour
• 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
• Pinch black pepper

Other Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 Tablespoons tahini *

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Instructions

1. Drain the water from the tofu package. Pat the tofu dry. (If you are not using Prepressed Tofu, see notes below.)  Cut the tofu into 2” (length) x 1” (width) by ½ “ (height) high pieces (see notes).  Set aside.
2. Place all the Tofu Marinade Ingredients into a glass baking dish, mix well, then place the cut tofu pieces and mix to coat well.Place in the fridge for one hour to marinade.  After one hour, flip the tofu around and marinade for another hour.
3. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
4. Place all the Crunch Coating Ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
5. After the tofu has marinated for 2 hours, drain the marinade liquid.
6. Place 2 Tablespoons (+ more if needed) of tahini in a medium bowl. Take a couple tofu pieces and light coat in the tahini. It is easiest to scoop up a small amount of the tahini in the dish, and massage the tahini all over the tofu pieces. You only need a very light coating of tahini.
7. Then place each piece into the Crunch Coating mixture and press the crunch coating mixture onto the tofu. Ensure all side of the tofu are coated, then place onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Continue this process until all the tofu has been coated in tahini and crunch coating.
8. Place in a preheated 400 F oven for 12 minutes, then flip and bake for another 10 to 12 minutes (watch after 10 minutes to ensure they do not over-brown).
9. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

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Notes

*Tofu: We used Nasoya Organic Super Firm Pre-Pressed ready to cook tofu. We find it in the refrigerator section of our health food grocery store. For best results we recommend using prepressed tofu as it holds up the best; however, if you are not using prepressed tofu, you will have to press the tofu first. To press the tofu, place a kitchen towel or paper towel on a plate. Place the tofu on the towel/paper towel, add another kitchen towel or paper towel on top. Then place another plate on top. It should be a sandwich: plate, towel, tofu, towel, plate. Then add large heavy cans on top. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Afterwards, continue with the rest of the instructions in step 1 and so forth.

*Tips for Cutting the Tofu:  Cut the block of tofu horizontally, then cut them in half lengthwise. Then make 6-7 cuts widthwise into 2” (length) x 1” (width) by ½ “ (depth) pieces.

*Vegetable Stock:   We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients.

*Tamari:We used San J Tamari Soy Sauce, Gluten Free, Reduced Sodium.  You can substitute the tamari with reduced sodium soy sauce, Braggs Liquid Aminos, or Braggs Coconut Liquid Aminos.

*Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

*Panko Crumbs: We used Ian’s Gluten Free Panko crumbs for this recipe.  If you do not need to be gluten free, feel free to use any panko bread crumbs of your choosing.  Ian’s is generally accepted by the WFPB community. If you are looking for a gluten free, sugar free WFPB panko crumbs, then you can use Food for Life Gluten Free Brown Rice English Muffins.  Tear up the English Muffins into small pieces, then buzz them in a food processor for about 3 minutes, then lay them out on a baking sheet overnight to dry them out.  Then after they have dried out overnight, buzz them again in the food processor before using.

*Makes:  24-28 nuggets

*Storage: Refrigerate and use within 7 days.

This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.